You Are Not Alone
by Sci-Fi Nut
Summary: One-Shot response to 30 minute fic horror challenge. Someone faces what could be the final moments of life. Will she face them alone? Warning: Character Death in story!


Disclaimer:  Any recognizable characters from the HP universe belong to JK Rowling. They are not mine and no money is being made off this story.

Authors Note:  This story is in answer to Challenge #12 at **30minutefics**.  You can find this group in the Live Journal Community. The challenge states that the author is to write a horror story in first person narrative.  It can include any HP characters but must take place in the HP Universe.  The author has 30 minutes to write the story from beginning to end (that includes editing if there is time for such).  I actually took 35 minutes to complete this story as I was trying to edit as I wrote.  After I posted the story to the LJ group, I noticed several errors in tense, etc and have since went back and corrected them (although I may have missed a few g). 

Warning:  This is not a romance but rather a tentative friendship between SS/HG.  There is character death involved.  You have been warned!      

**You Are Not Alone**

By JStockert/ Sci-Fi Nut

I bite back the scream but allow a shiver to course down my spine.  I cannot stop it any more than I can stop the chaos that now surrounds me.  The gore is everywhere; the walls, the floors, the lifeless bodies that now litter the stone tiles like pieces of discarded trash.  I can see the flies already gathering about them, looking for a late night snack.  Their frenzy sickens me as I sicken myself for my inability to stop these events. For all my cleverness, I knew nothing when the critical moment finally arrived. 

The smell of freshly killed bodies combined with the odor of blood and bodily fluids fills my nostrils and invades my mind, bringing back the true horror of this very night.  I want to retch but I know the sound will give away my position.  He is looking for me and I fear that he will not stop until he finds me for I have seen the demon he has become first hand.  I was there, on the fringe of the battle, at the time of the possession.  

I think back to the beginning of this night and shed the tears of one who has lost her innocence.  The innocence of my childhood has slipped away into the darkness of the night.  _'How could this happen?'_ I wonder to myself, the tiniest of whimpers escaping my tightly sealed lips that are now raw from nervous chewing.  It has always been a bad habit of mine. _'How could we have come to this?' _ 

Suddenly, and without warning, I hear a scream echo through the stone corridors of the ancient castle.  A castle that, until today stood, as a symbol for tolerance and safety.  A castle that has now become a tomb to those that would have opposed the prejudice which is so easily served to Wizards and Witches of lesser moral fiber.  

The scream dies down to nothing more than a macabre memory, one that will live on in my mind with the sounds and sights of all that I have seen this night. I selfishly breathe a sigh of relief that the anguished screams had not been wrenched from my very own throat.  I feel guilty for indulging in such thoughts, knowing the horrors of what so many others have faced.  I feel guilty for hiding out in a pantry in a desperate attempt to hold on to my own life.  How could I not?  Still, I cower near the shelves stocked with canned goods and huddle there, knees scrunched up and my head bent down. It is a posture I used to assume as a small child, just after I would awake from a horrific nightmare. It was so much easier when I was nothing more than a simple Muggle child, clueless of the Magical World that existed concealed within our own. My father would enter my room, cradle me in his arms, and rock me back and forth while cooing gentle words that soothed me from my fright.  But I know there will be no gentle words, no soft touches, no happy ending on this hellish night for even if I somehow manage to survive, the reality will remain. The nightmare is all too real.  _'How could we not have seen this coming?'_

I gasp as something touches my shoulder, its long talon like fingers curling around the soft flesh lay bare from the tearing of my clothes during an earlier altercation.  I spin around quickly to face what I can only assume is to be the last moment of my life and nearly weep with joy at the tide of relief that washes over my body. 

"Hush, Miss Granger," I hear and am surprised at the gentleness of your tone and the compassion in your eyes.  If only you would have engaged in such human emotions during these past seven years! I nod silently and offer a tentative, shaky smile as I stare into the depths of your black eyes. Eyes that once frightened me but now comfort me.  I realize that I am no longer alone.  Somehow, though I am probably fooling myself, I feel that you are thinking the same thing. 

"They're all dead," I whisper, referring to the bodies of the teachers and friends I have held so dear to my heart for so very long. "Voldemort took him."

"I know," you reply softly and I am flooded with the sensation of once again being a small, cherished child as I feel your arms encircle my waist and draw me against your battered body.  I am amazed at the compassion you have shown to one you professed such intolerance for throughout the years and I can't help but be grateful to you.  

"You are not alone," you whisper and your breath tickles my ear as your words soothe my aching mind.  How could you have guessed my deepest fear?     

I nod and lean into the warmth your body offers, relaxing ever so slightly.  I can hear that your breathing has also evened out and a feeling of happiness surrounds me for such a brief moment in time. 

The moment would end all too quickly as a gust of cold air blows through the pantry and the luminescent figure of Peeves appears.  

The poltergeist is obviously startled by our presence but the nature that has been inherent within him for so long cannot be tempered, even in these most dire of times.  The loud sound of cans crashing to the floor is all it takes to draw the Demon's attention to our precarious little hiding place.  It is a deadly prank that will now cost us our lives.  

The door opens and light floods the pantry.  I squint as my eyes attempt to adjust and look up to see a pair of red eyes, which would haunt the stoutest of people, maliciously stare back at us.

"Harry," I whisper, knowing that the end has come for not only us but for you as well.  The demon that was the Dark Lord has taken your life just as you will now take ours.  The only difference is that you have been consigned to a living death as he controls you from within.  

The demon lifts his wand and points it directly at us and I am surprised to note a small tear fall down his cheek.  It would seem that a little remains of the childhood friend I have treasured for so long after all.  

My body instinctively tenses as the _Killing Curse_ is cast. The deadly green light streaks toward us and there is no escape. 

"You are not alone." They are the last words I hear fall from your lips as your arms tighten around me.  

"Neither are you," I gratefully whisper as the garish light engulfs our forms.   

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The End

So… What did you think?


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